Latest Tom Perrotta Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I think I was always writing books that had very clear scenic structures. I do tend to write in scenes. I do tend to have a fair amount of dialogue. And I do tend to use stories that don't sprawl all over the place, that have a very sharp focus in terms of how they unfold in time.

  Tom Perrotta

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I know very few writers who outline fully before they start. It just doesn't seem possible to do, because so many things don't come out until you're absolutely knee-deep in the world.

  Tom Perrotta

  World

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I was an English major in college, I went to a creative-writing program, and all my life, I really read and thought about fiction as a craft and an art form. I feel like I know a lot about it, and can trust my instincts.

  Tom Perrotta

  Art, College, Instinct

  Source: www.avclub.com

• The lesson you have to learn as novelist is how to be collaborative, and how to say, "I don't get to dictate this."

  Tom Perrotta

  Novelists, Lessons

  Source: www.avclub.com

• The interesting part about the writing process is that you can never see all the way to the end, not if something is happening over the course of a year and a half, or two years.

  Tom Perrotta

  Writing, Years, Two

  Interview with Scott Tobias, www.avclub.com. November 7, 2007.